Residential or commercial satellite dishes are commonly attached to residential homes and commercial buildings and are used to capture frequencies transmitted from communication satellite orbiting the earth to subscriber residential and commercial customers.
In areas where winter weather conditions occur, snow, ice, heavy frost and ice fog can collect on the front of a residential or commercial satellite dish and cause the signals being captured by the dish to become disrupted. Temperatures in some areas may reach −30 degrees Celsius or below which make clearing the dish face quite challenging due to exposure issues. Once the build up of snow, ice, frost or ice fog becomes heavy enough, the signal the satellite dish is receiving can become disrupted so as to not allow the electronic equipment connected to the lines leading from the satellite dish to function properly. Thus, the subscribed residential or commercial satellite television programming will no longer broadcast to the customer until the snow, ice, frost or ice fog is removed. Winter weather related outages can occur multiple times throughout a winter season.
Unfortunately, due to nature of residential or commercial satellite dishes having to maintain peak signals, they are often installed at the high points of homes or commercial buildings, on the rooftops of homes or commercial building or in locations that are sometime inaccessible during winter conditions. Thus customers are often left without satellite signal and programming for days at a time.
The costs related to the snow, ice, frost and ice fog related outages are frustrating for the customers of the satellite service providers and cost the satellite service providers valuable revenue when having to compensate the customers. As well, these outages are costly to the satellite service providers due to the fact that a technician has to be dispatched out to a customer's residential home or commercial building in order to remove the snow, ice, frost or ice fog to thereby restore proper satellite signal and programming. Depending on the circumstances, the winter weather related service calls cost the satellite service providers hundreds of dollars each time they are dispatched.
During severe winter storms, extreme accumulations of snowfall, ice, frost or ice fog may occur throughout a day. Thus during storms lasting days the satellite dish on a residential home or commercial building may need to be cleared multiple times in order to restore signal and programming. This compounds the unsafe nature of having to restore the signal to the satellite dish.
As stated by Jones in U.S. Pat. No. 5,920,289, which issued Jul. 6, 1999 for a Heated Satellite Reflector Assembly, reflector, commonly called a dish, is generally a parabolic section having a round or elliptical configuration. A reflector functions to gather radio or microwave frequency energy transmitted from the feedhorn or through the ambient environment from an external transmitter. The reflector can thus be used to receive and transmit signals to and from the satellite system. Reflectors are usually located outdoors, where snow and ice may collect on the receiving or concave side, degrading the performance of the reflector.
It is known to heat the front surface of a reflector with an embedded heater wire.
It is also known to mold heater wire into the back side of the reflector. That is, the heater wire is molded into the reflector closer to the back surface of the reflector than to the front surface. Additionally, it is known to embed heating electrodes within a reflector. As with other known reflector assemblies employing embedded heaters, no insulation is provided on the back of the reflector to inhibit heat transfer to the ambient environment.
It is further known to provide a reflector assembly with a reflector which is spaced apart from and connected with a back cover. The reflector and back cover define an enclosed air chamber therebetween. A radiant heater is placed within the air chamber adjacent the back cover and radiates heat to the entire back surface of the reflector to melt or inhibit the accumulation of ice and snow on the reflector. Alternatively, forced hot air may be circulated within the air chamber between the reflector and back cover. The inside surface of the back cover may include a layer of fiberglass insulation and/or a reflective surface to radiate heat towards the reflector.
A reflector assembly used in conjunction with a back cover uses convection or radiation to heat the back surface of the reflector. Such a heating technique is effective to heat the entire back surface of the reflector when desirable for certain applications, but is somewhat inefficient since the back surface of the reflector must be heated via convection or radiation and the heat then transferred to the front surface of the reflector via conduction. This means that the back surface of the reflector must actually be heated above a desired operating temperature on the front surface of the reflector due to thermal losses resulting from the conduction heat transfer. Moreover, the back cover is spaced apart from the reflector and increases the effective size of the reflector assembly, requiring additional space for operation and rendering handling more cumbersome.
Jones discloses embedding heater wire under the front surface of a satellite dish reflector, wherein the heater wire is separated from the back surface of the reflector by a layer of thermal insulation. The heater is placed adjacent to the reflecting surface of the antenna.
Jones, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,963,171 which issued Oct. 5, 1999, for a Thermally Insulated Satellite Reflector Assembly With Non-embedded Heater Assembly, discloses the use of foam insulation mounted to the ribs of the back surface of a satellite dish reflector assembly wherein a heater assembly is attached to the inside surface of the foam insulation.
In the prior art applicant is also aware of published United States patent application filed by Corn and published Nov. 25, 2010 under publication no. US 2010/0295742, and entitled Satellite Dish Heating System, wherein Corn describes using a single piece of circular notched vinyl thermoplastic sheet having a shape corresponding to the shape of a satellite dish wherein a dual-wire heater cable is adhesively applied to the rear surface of the dish.
Applicant is also aware of U.S. Pat. No. 4,866,452 which issued Sep. 12, 1989, to Barma for Heated Dish Antennas, wherein Barma discloses using a radiant heater located behind the dish antenna and spaced apart therefrom wherein a back shell is mounted behind the ribs of the dish antenna, and wherein a layer of insulation is mounted to the inside surface of the back shell and heater panels are mounted to the inside surface of the insulation. Barma teaches that typically the distance between the heater and the back surface of the dish antenna is three-six inches.
In the prior art of which applicant is also aware the HotShot™ dish heating system is applied to the front face of a satellite dish reflector, which covers up the branding for the satellite company, and relies on an adhesive for mounting the heating element to the front face of the dish. The Ice Zapper™ satellite dish heating system is strictly used for heating round, metal satellite dishes. 2×3″×10″ strips of heat trace that are applied to the rear of a metal satellite dish. The system relies on the heat transfer of the heat through the metal to distribute the heat around the dish. The heat strips are applied with adhesives.